Payback
by Wind Lane
Summary: Raven has some unresolved issues with Beast Boy.


(A/N) As a creative exercise I've been listening to my ipod on random and for every song that comes up figured out some story premise for Raven and Beast Boy based on it. Not song fics, just song inspired. Some songs are easier than others, with classical and jazz being the most difficult as there's a lot of room for where I could go. I typically just have some image in my head for those and then think about how I would write to that point and what would come after it. This story came from that exercise, though I can't remember what song inspired it now.

Disclaimer – The Teen Titans? They're so cool, man, they're out of sight. And I ain't got the bread to put those cats on my shelf, you dig? Word to your phlebotomist.

Payback – A story of childish revenge at its finest.

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A green blur was all she saw moments before impact. She was grateful the impact consisted of only a thump against her chest instead of the usual, but the badger that had bounced off of her stuck with the pattern for the rest of it:

A quick apology, and a charge back into battle as something else.

Well, Raven had had enough of it. The apologies were always meant, but the frequency of need for them was astounding. Tonight, she would let Beast Boy know, in no uncertain terms, exactly what she thought of his constant impression of a human cannonball using her as the safety net.

She distractedly dodged gunfire as she plotted. When had Gizmo started using guns? It didn't matter. Retribution. That's what she was after, and that's what she would get. She looked over at Beast Boy giving See-more a vicious kick in a vital area. See-more seemed much less inclined towards fighting back after the green goat had done that.

Hopefully Beast Boy could be taught in a similar fashion.

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It was around seven thirty when she took her first bit of payback. Beast Boy was sitting on the arm of the couch reading a comic book. It wasn't hard to sneak up on him. Raven was sure that would change when he'd figured out what she would be doing.

Beast Boy, for his part, was laughing about Archie getting dumped by Betty and Veronica because he got their birthdays mixed up. Beast Boy is easily entertained at times. And it was during this mindless bit of entertainment that he found himself suddenly being tackled onto the couch.

By the time he'd registered what had happened, Raven had already gotten off of him, muttered an apology, and was leaving the room. His attempts to find out what in the world had just happened went unanswered.

When Cyborg walked in a few minutes later to grab a magazine he'd left, Beast Boy had tried to explain what had happened and only found stubborn skepticism instead of the help to understand the strange events he'd hoped for.

And in a short span of time, he started to agree with Cyborg. Raven didn't do things like that. Ever. Maybe it was that burrito he'd eaten from the fridge. He couldn't remember the last time they'd had Mexican. Settling on his imagination getting the better of him, he let it go.

But it was less than a day later, less than an hour later even, that Raven did it again. Beast Boy had been headed towards his bedroom when Raven came flying at him, tackled him to the ground, and was quickly gone again with another softly spoke apology.

This time he was too sure of what had happened to let it go, and so he ran after her. She didn't try to run away, and she didn't try to deny it when he accused her of doing it intentionally, she merely reminded him that she'd said she was sorry and that she'd meant it.

She refused any further explanation.

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Beast Boy would have taken it for Raven being in a weird mood if it hadn't kept happening. If Beast Boy was walking down the middle of the hall, he'd get tackled, if he was sitting on the couch with no one next to him, he'd get tackled, if he was in any part of the tower that afforded even the slightest of comfortable landing spots (Ravan appeared to limit her attacks to places that at least had carpeting), he'd get tackled. She'd even taken to doing it in more public places as long as they weren't in the middle of a fight or being pressed by fans.

The effect it was having on Beast Boy was quite noticeable. He was twitchier, highly likely to cling to walls and friends, and had started to give a little squeak of noise whenever he saw that familiar color of blue.

His friends would have followed Cyborg's lead in skepticism if Beast Boy, in an attempt at having someone give some kind of rational explanation for what was happening, hadn't unglued himself from the wall he was against and stood resignedly next to the couch with his back to the common room door.

The blue blur that collided with Beast Boy had caught everyone by surprise, though the events stayed the same as they'd been all week: An apology followed by a hasty exit.

Robin, acting as he felt was his duty, had gone to question the offender but was stonewalled. She denied nothing, refusing explanation beyond the statistical notes that Beast Boy had been knocked into her one-hundred eighty-seven times to date, which, she went on to explain, meant he had collided with her in one out of every three battles they'd ever had. All further inquiries were ignored.

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As the routine wore on, Beast Boy developed a pattern for avoidance. He would always walk as close to walls as possible and stay on tiled or linoleum floors. If he wanted to play a video game, he made sure to have someone else to play against for the safety in numbers.

It had the intended effect and his daily tackle totals dropped considerably until Raven changed tactics.

Now she just came through the walls, tackled him into the seat he was already in whether he was next to anyone or not, and simply threw down a few pillows when he stuck to places with harder surface areas.

Having gotten past his fear of the thing, he'd started to settle firmly into full on resignation. He would wake up in the morning, step out into the hall to get tackled, and then continue on to the bathroom. From there he'd head to the common room, get tackled, and make some breakfast.

The day would continue like this, with him being tackled in between everything he did, until he'd go back to his room for one last tackle before bed.

It would have continued like that for all time im memorium, but Beast Boy is a curious person and the nagging part of his brain that wanted to know why this was happening had gotten more and more persistent.

Purely to get his own mind to shut up, he hatched a plan that would likely bring him harm, but would at least bring answers. Probably.

The next day Beast Boy changed into a flea and snuck out of his room to get to the common room undetected. He felt a twinge of annoyance at himself for not having used his powers sooner. When he was sure that he would be alone, he changed back and sat in the exact middle of the couch and piled DVDs and video games on either side of himself and waited.

He hadn't been waiting very long when Raven was flying towards him in the way he'd grown accustomed to. When she wrapped her arms around his neck for the usual tackle he grabbed on as tight as he could and explained exactly what he wanted to happen.

Raven was told, in no uncertain terms, that he wasn't letting go until she explained why she had been tackling him for almost a month now. He also explained, in slightly more hesitant terms, that he knew he was going to get it afterwards, but that he was willing to accept that.

Raven, for her part, seemed unfazed by his demands. She calmly let him know that the reason for her hugs had been due to an attraction for the green man and that they were sudden due to her shyness and plentiful due to her daring. She also added on something about how nice it felt to finally be caught, though this was said against Beast Boy's neck as she snuggled into him and may have been misheard.

Finally having his answer Beast Boy gave a sound of comprehension and an experimental squeeze. His brain having confirmed that Raven was still there decided to figure something else out before panic set in. Panic waited patiently in the back, knowing full well it would get all the time it wanted.

His second line of questioning for Raven, who was now purring in an oddly alluring manner, was to ask about what she had told Robin.

Raven repeated the statistics, though the total was now one-hundred eighty-nine, and asked if that's what Beast Boy was referring to. He nodded. She asked if he'd ever noticed that she hadn't yet dodged.

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(A/N) Sooooooo, I hadn't planned on writing this with no actual dialog, but as I went along, it just seemed to work, so I stuck with it. Let me know what you think.


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